Chapter 1,703 There is nothing you cant think of and nothing you cant do
The styles in the photos are all different. There is a flat-bottomed one with two ears, a narrow mouth, a straight neck, shoulders, animal ears holding rings, a slightly bulging abdomen, and a flat bottom.
There is also a four-ear flat-bottom style with a wider mouth edge, a narrowed mouth and a bulging belly, a flat bottom, and two pairs of animal-headed ears.
The other one also has four ears and hoops, with a narrow mouth, a neck and shoulders, an animal head and two pairs of ears, one of which holds a ring.
The pair without rings are purely decorative. The abdomen is rounded and there are short hoop feet under it. This style is smaller.
The last one is a square body with four ears and hoops, with a square mouth and neck, a rounded abdomen, four ears in the shape of a dragon, and short square hoops.
These four bronze mirrors, among this group of bronze vessels, can only be regarded as quite satisfactory, not particularly out of the ordinary.
Chen Wenzhe flipped through the photos and soon discovered a multi-purpose bronze vessel, which was a bronze fou.
This thing has multiple uses and can bring considerable convenience to people's lives. This kind of idea and tool has existed in our country since ancient times.
This copper fou from the Warring States Period is an example. It can both chill wine and heat it.
One such bronze fou was unearthed from the tomb of Zeng Houyi in 1978.
That piece is 632 centimeters tall and is now in the National Museum.
The piece in front of me is also a combined vessel, which is made up of a bronze jian and a bronze fou, which some people call a pot set.
This bronze sword is square in shape, with a length and width of 76 centimeters, which can be said to be huge.
The decoration on its rim is particularly eye-catching.
The ornaments at the four corners are square and ruler-shaped, and the ornaments in the middle of each side are rectangular.
These 8 pieces of jewelry are covered with carvings and relief patterns.
They are as thin as wool threads, intertwined with each other, and they are so dense that you can’t count them. However, they are arranged in an orderly manner and their shapes are lifelike.
A pair of small eyes are bright and full of energy.
In addition to the embossed cloud patterns and flat chi patterns on the outer wall of the body, there are also 8 dragon-shaped ear buttons.
They bow upward in a climbing posture, which is very vivid.
Each of the four corners at the bottom of the body has a beast-shaped foot.
Despite the small size of the little beast, he squatted on the ground, raised his two front legs, and held the bronze mirror firmly.
He also made a playful smile and looked full of strength.
The copper fou is also square, with a cover at the top, a circle of square feet at the bottom, and eye holes on the square feet.
Regarding the function of the eyelets, there is a curved hook at the bottom of the square mirror corresponding to the eyelet of the square foot of the fou, which can be inserted into the eyelet of the foot of the fou to prevent the copper fou from floating or toppling.
What's even better is that one of the bolts is equipped with a barb. When it is inserted into the eye hole of the foot of the fou, it will fall down automatically and the copper fou will stand more firmly.
The copper plate has a beautiful square cover decorated with hollow patterns. There is a large square hole in the center of the cover that fits the mouth of the square fou. This fit is quite similar to the assembly method of today's thermos bottles.
If you take off the square cover of the copper fou and look down at this set of fou, you will see that its shape is like the character "hui".
The fou is in the middle, and there is a large space between the outer wall of the fou and the inner wall of the fou. It is this space that enables it to have the dual functions of cooling and heating.
In the hot summer season, people can enjoy cold and delicious drinks by filling the can with drinks and placing ice cubes in the space.
Qu Yuan's poem in "The Songs of the Chu" says, "If you drink it coldly, it will be cooler when you drink it." This expresses the refreshing feeling of drinking a full cup of frozen sweet wine.
According to the freezing effect of the copper fou, modern archaeologists studied the copper fou of Zeng Houyi and believed that it was an ancient "refrigerator" in my country, and it was the earliest refrigerator seen so far.
If it is the middle of winter, it is not difficult for people to drink hot drinks.
As long as hot water is poured into that space, the beverage in the can can be heated up.
I wonder if you have thought of this: whether it is the melting of ice cubes or the injection of hot water, a certain amount of buoyancy will be generated, which will affect the stability of the fou.
The craftsmen back then must have noticed this problem. The hook device mentioned above made buoyancy no longer a problem. This also shows the wisdom of the ancients.
Our country has been using natural frozen food to preserve food for a long time. In the Western Zhou Dynasty more than 3,000 years ago, icehouses existed.
Moreover, there are also specialized officials named "Lingren" who manage the icehouse.
Every winter, people cut the ice in the river into large blocks, put them in cellars, and then seal them up.
During this process, air must be prevented from entering. This ice can be preserved until the hot summer.
This method has been used ever since. In the Qing Dynasty, there were 5 ice cellars in the Forbidden City, storing nearly 30,000 pieces of ice.
If many old people who were born as gods live near the Longxugou described by Mr. Lao She, you can see workers digging and hiding ice in the goldfish pond every winter.
"Huh? This one is really similar to King Wu's Fuchaijian!"
Obviously, the person who took the photo was knowledgeable. He had at least classified the same type of bronzes together.
Therefore, now Chen Wenzhe has seen another bronze jian that is very similar to King Wu's Fuchai Jian in terms of decoration and shape.
Obviously, this bronze mirror is not from the Warring States period, but from the late Spring and Autumn Period.
This vessel is shaped like a large vat with a flat bottom.
There are dragon-head-shaped animal ears on both sides of the belly of the device, and beside the mouth edge between the two ears, there is a small dragon climbing up the mouth of the device, as if exploring water.
The entire body is decorated with dense interlocking dragon patterns for three weeks, and there is an inscription on the inner wall of the vessel with two lines of thirteen characters, which records that a nobleman used bronze to make this mirror, which was used by the royal family in the palace.
Unfortunately, Chen Wenzhe's attainments in bronze inscriptions were still a bit lacking, and for a while, he couldn't figure out whose royal possession it was.
Besides, the inscriptions on the photos were too small and difficult to read, so Chen Wenzhe did not study them in a hurry.
Continuing to look through the photos, Chen Wenzhe felt a little emotional.
This is really a group of ancient tombs of a large family of ancient princes, all of which were overturned.
Otherwise, it would be impossible to unearth so many ancient bronze mirrors.
That's all for the previous ones. The next few photos allowed Chen Wenzhe to confirm the luxurious life of the ancients.
Until then, ancient copper had the same status as today's gold.
In ancient times, princes used bathtubs made of gold to bathe, look in the mirror, and even wash their faces.
For example, the four-ring unmarked large scroll in front of me dates from the Warring States Period. This shape is speculated to be the "bathtub" at that time.
And this bronze sword is not just one piece, but is often a matching set.
For example, the square bronze fou is for men, and the round bronze fou is for women.
This should be the "couple's lesson" of the Chu State in the late Warring States Period.
The couple also revealed another use of the bronze jian, which is to use the combination of the jian and the fou as a wine ice vessel or a wine warming vessel, which is called "jian fou".
The "Wuwang Guangjian" and "Caihou Shenfangjian" used as dowries are also a combination of circles and squares.
Perhaps, in Wu and Chu, Fang Jian's rank was slightly higher than Yuan Jian's, which showed the hierarchical thinking of men being superior to women at that time.
In addition to the function of husband and wife, there is also the function of "father and son". It can be said that only we modern people can't think of it, but no ancients can do it.